Sierra may no longer be a publisher that many modern gamers are aware of, but the company was long ago responsible for bringing the PC world some of its finest adventure titles in the form of the “Quest” series. 2X

But while many of still remember classics like Kings Quest and Space Quest today, games like Jones in the Fast Lane only registered as a blip in the company’s 30 year history. However, this successful early genre mash and multiplayer success proved that early Sierra could do more than just point and click games.

Jones is essentially a computerised board game. Normally that’s enough to make anyone groan and move on, but Jones had one vital difference that put it light years ahead of video game versions of Monopoly or Risk.

It was designed from the ground up as a board game on a computer. There was no conversion of an existing game franchise, and thankfully there were no dice, either.

If it emulates any game at all, it’s the traditional ‘Game of Life’. Players are tasked with beating either the computer or their friends in achieving such esoteric goals as happiness, filling up their meters before the other players.

Goals were achieved by getting a job, working on your education and buying better and better things to fill your apartment with.

Being set in the 80s, when we say ‘better’ things we mean a great assortment of things we would now consider junk - $500 hi-fi systems with turntables, full colour television sets and even, if you really worked hard and hit the big leagues, a VCR.

Jones works because it captures the fun of a board game but also uses the technology it was built on. The math used to measure your success or calculate your wages would have made the game tedious at best had it not been for the computer taking the weight off, letting your focus on your strategy rather than your calculator.

As with any board game, Jones is best played with friends. The hot seat mode is one of the best we’ve experienced in any game and its social nature reminds us of the whole point of playing a board game in the first place. It’s remarkable how competitive the game can make you, despite the fact that none of the players in the game ever interact with each other.

Hot seat gaming has long since given way to LAN gaming and online gaming after that, but you can still get back that original 80s feel by playing the game when hooked up to media centre PC in your living room. Remarkably, the game still works fine on all modern versions of Windows, though you might have a hard time picking a real copy up.

Jones has a few flaws, and the mostly revolve around the games randomness. Sometimes you’ll find the ‘stock market crash’ happens right at the start of the gaming making it virtually impossible to make money for a large portion of play.

Other times you’ll be fired from your job only to find out that reapplying for the same position at a higher wage is totally fine.

But Jones never claimed to be an accurate representation of real life, and whatever weird stuff happened to you it was bound to also happen to your opponents later in the game as well.

Jones isn’t a groundbreaking computer game, nor can it compete with many real life board games in terms of accessibility. It is however a rare example of successful fusion between the two mediums and well worth playing, if for no other reason than to admire the amazing outfits of the games 80s protagonist.

Play Jones If: You’re fed up of soul less online gaming and what something you can sit around and play with the people you actually live with. Or you really like board games and life sims.